(There are Spoilers) Hard hitting made for TV movie about how an addiction can not only destroy the person addicted but everyone and everything that he or she touches.
Having just moved from Florida to Reno Nevada Laura Bancroft, Delta Burke, had everything going for her in being the top fund-raiser at her new job managing the Juvenile Chronic Illness Foundation. It was when Laura innocently stepped into a local Reno casino to see how things are going on there that she stepped into hell. A hell that in the end would lead Laura to not only loses her savings home job and even family but her freedom. In her desperate attempt to have action on the casino's slot machines Laura even embezzled the foundation that she headed that was to help infirmed and disabled children!
We get to see Laura slowly descend into "Gambling Hell" as, like most people who get addicted to gambling, she suffers an acute case of "Biginners Luck". Running up a winning streak at the casino Laura feels that she somehow found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that she was looking for all her life. As her luck started to turn Laura instead of walking away from the one armed bandits, slot machines, went full-tilt and her bank account quickly reached zero.
Trying to keep her addiction, as well as the dwindling family bank account, from her hard working husband Jim, Gerald McRaney, and daughter and son Jennifer, Ellen Page, and Tommy,Matthew Haubour, Laura started to suffer from panic attacks in their finding out the truth about her secret life. With Laura not being about to do both her job as a fund-raiser and mother both her professional and home-keeper careers went to pot along with her.
Always blaming everyone else for her addiction even the sweet and elderly women Bella-Joyce Gordon-who introduced Laura to the slots, not realizing what a additive person she is, Laura ran out of people to blame for her own problems when they, those whom she tried to blamed, ran out on her.
Poor Jim breaking his back working two shifts at the local taxi garage as a grease monkey was lied to and even humiliated, in what a loser he is, by an out of control Laura who treated the hard working man worst then a piece of garbage. A deranged and feeling high on the hog Laura after hitting a $50,000.00 jackpot at the casino, which she lost the very next day, not only had Jim thrown out of his own house but had both Jennifer and Tommy, knowing that their mom is quickly losing it, leave as well.
With everything closing in on her and facing jail and disgrace Laura looking for a way out of the mess that she and only she put herself into choose to do herself in via carbon monoxide poisoning. It was at that time in her garage, with Laura's car fumes about to suffocate her, that Laura finally saw the light and realized that running away from her demons, gambling, will only make things worst for those she'll leave behind. It was there and then that Laura decided to both face the music, in embezzling the foundation she ran, and also do something to cure her from her gambling addiction! Laura decided to come clean with what she did at her job and also go to GA, Gamblers Anonymous, and get her and her family's, because of her addiction, totally destroyed lives back together again.
P.S Because of what gambling did to Laura Bancroft, as well as thousands of other helpless and addicted gamblers, legislation was passed to post telephone numbers of addicted gamblers self-help groups,like Gambling Anonymous,at gambling establishments like casinos or off track betting houses for anyone who seeks help. Something that wasn't around when Laura Bancroft lost control and went under when she went on the road to financial and personal destruction depicted in the movie "Going for Broke".
Having just moved from Florida to Reno Nevada Laura Bancroft, Delta Burke, had everything going for her in being the top fund-raiser at her new job managing the Juvenile Chronic Illness Foundation. It was when Laura innocently stepped into a local Reno casino to see how things are going on there that she stepped into hell. A hell that in the end would lead Laura to not only loses her savings home job and even family but her freedom. In her desperate attempt to have action on the casino's slot machines Laura even embezzled the foundation that she headed that was to help infirmed and disabled children!
We get to see Laura slowly descend into "Gambling Hell" as, like most people who get addicted to gambling, she suffers an acute case of "Biginners Luck". Running up a winning streak at the casino Laura feels that she somehow found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that she was looking for all her life. As her luck started to turn Laura instead of walking away from the one armed bandits, slot machines, went full-tilt and her bank account quickly reached zero.
Trying to keep her addiction, as well as the dwindling family bank account, from her hard working husband Jim, Gerald McRaney, and daughter and son Jennifer, Ellen Page, and Tommy,Matthew Haubour, Laura started to suffer from panic attacks in their finding out the truth about her secret life. With Laura not being about to do both her job as a fund-raiser and mother both her professional and home-keeper careers went to pot along with her.
Always blaming everyone else for her addiction even the sweet and elderly women Bella-Joyce Gordon-who introduced Laura to the slots, not realizing what a additive person she is, Laura ran out of people to blame for her own problems when they, those whom she tried to blamed, ran out on her.
Poor Jim breaking his back working two shifts at the local taxi garage as a grease monkey was lied to and even humiliated, in what a loser he is, by an out of control Laura who treated the hard working man worst then a piece of garbage. A deranged and feeling high on the hog Laura after hitting a $50,000.00 jackpot at the casino, which she lost the very next day, not only had Jim thrown out of his own house but had both Jennifer and Tommy, knowing that their mom is quickly losing it, leave as well.
With everything closing in on her and facing jail and disgrace Laura looking for a way out of the mess that she and only she put herself into choose to do herself in via carbon monoxide poisoning. It was at that time in her garage, with Laura's car fumes about to suffocate her, that Laura finally saw the light and realized that running away from her demons, gambling, will only make things worst for those she'll leave behind. It was there and then that Laura decided to both face the music, in embezzling the foundation she ran, and also do something to cure her from her gambling addiction! Laura decided to come clean with what she did at her job and also go to GA, Gamblers Anonymous, and get her and her family's, because of her addiction, totally destroyed lives back together again.
P.S Because of what gambling did to Laura Bancroft, as well as thousands of other helpless and addicted gamblers, legislation was passed to post telephone numbers of addicted gamblers self-help groups,like Gambling Anonymous,at gambling establishments like casinos or off track betting houses for anyone who seeks help. Something that wasn't around when Laura Bancroft lost control and went under when she went on the road to financial and personal destruction depicted in the movie "Going for Broke".